Poetry by Erica Leal

Edited by Annika Lee

Your presence 

lingers everywhere 

I go. Our souls woven 

together as if by an 

invisible thread.

 

I see you 

in the world around me, 

hear you

in the melodies of your 

favorite songs.

 

The light in my darkness,

the image of a guardian angel.

Left to illuminate what 

remains of me, surrounded by 

shadows of grief.

 

I try to preserve your essence 

through pictures and video,

but I’m haunted by the reality of 

your absence. A wound that cuts 

deeper with each passing day. 

 

And so I cling to what’s left 

as I dance with your ghost, 

humming along to the melody, 

praying I’m mistaken and will one day 

wake from this twisted dream.

 

Solace unfound, 

I pray for divine intervention.

For your story to continue,

An ending to remain unwritten.

 

They say grief is love; 

Perhaps it is. 

For with love comes pain,

The devil inevitably linked to an angel.

 

And so, I succumb to the pain 

as I watch the film of our lives unfold,

rewinding the tape when it gets 

to the part I so desperately 

want to rewrite. 

 

Yet, in my sorrow, 

I feel your warmth,

enveloping me like an embrace

that I can’t quite grasp. 

 

So I fight with the air, 

trying to pull you out 

of the clouds and back

home to me, but somehow 

it’s never enough. 

 

The closer I get, 

The further you go.

As if to say, 

“Mija, it’s okay.”

 

But it was never okay. 

You’re lost in the 

in-between and I’m stuck 

on the horizon.

 

Left clutching onto fragments of a memory, 

Wishing I could trade places.